Meet Elgin football’s Energizer Bunny: Quentin Harrison wins August Fahey Bank Award

MARION — If ever the bunny loses its juice, Energizer needs to hit up Elgin’s Quentin Harrison to be the battery company’s next ad campaign.

Q keeps going and going and going.

“I like to stay busy,” the junior three-sport standout said. “When I take a day off like a Sunday and don’t do much and kind of sit at the house, it feels wrong. I’d prefer to stay busy. It keeps me active, and I don’t get lazy. It’s not too hard to stay busy.”

So what fills his days besides school and practices for football, wrestling and baseball depending on the season?

Deeper Dive: Comets reaching heights unseen in a generation of football at Elgin

Harrison is a workout warrior, often training on his own or with a friend after practices. He works at the Dairy Bar in Green Camp. He mows lawns for himself and also for a friend who owns a landscaping business. He also started a side-hustle business with a friend where they detail cars.

Seven days a week from morning until night, he’s doing something mentally or physically challenging.

“He has an incredible work ethic,” Elgin football coach Zack Winslow said. “His goals are to be the best version of himself. That’s what makes him special.”

Elgin’s Energizer Bunny

Elgin is off to its best start in football since the turn of the century. A lot of things have gone into this turnaround for the program, but there is only one tone-setter. That’s Harrison.

“He’s super coachable and always has a great attitude and lots of energy,” Winslow said. “He sets the tone for us in practice and not because of how hard he hits or something like that. It’s the energy that he brings that sets the tone for most of our kids. They just feed off him.”

Only a junior, he’s still a leader on the squad because of his demeanor and talent. Even older peers follow his lead, and he doesn’t find that unusual at all.

More: Who are the football stats leaders at midseason in the Marion area?

“I’ve always been good friends. I don’t really have any enemies. I try to be friends with everyone,” he said of his approach with teammates. “A lot of people think it’s a lot of pressure, but to me I’m being who I am and bringing energy. I have fun with it. Do the best you can do in any situation and have fun with it. There’s not a lot of pressure on me because I don’t have to pretend. It’s just me.”

After coming off a big baseball season where he was second in the Marion area in batting average at .427 and led the area in runs batted in with 29, Harrison refocused his approach. He increased his training and became conscious of the impact he can have on teammates.

“I found when you push hard and you bring the energy, you can do better than you anticipated,” he said. “That’s the big thing this season. I brought the energy every day to practice and worked hard. It seems when you do that your team clicks better. It’s a motivation for me. If I bring the energy, my team is going to be better.”

Elgin junior Quentin Harrison gets set on defense during Friday’s 59-14 home win over Crestline in a Northwest Central Conference football game.

Maturity showing

Elgin hasn’t started a football season 6-0 since 1999. Harrison is the team’s top rusher and also a key player on defense.

However, because the Comets have been blowing out opponents every week and enjoying running clocks in every second half this season, his reps at running back and on defense are lesser than most players at other schools who get four quarters of competition week after week to this point of the year.

As long as the wins are coming, Harrison is fine.

“He doesn’t care if he gets two carries and his team wins. If he has to block to set up his teammate to score, he truly wants everybody to win. He wants the team to do well,” Winslow said. “He never wants to be the guy who lets them down. If he makes a bad play, it’s not like, ‘Oh my stats!’ He’s worried about what are my teammates going to think about me. ‘I’m sorry I let you down.'”

It would be natural to get frustrated by the lack of playing time in romps and routs, but not Harrison.

“With those games, I try not to focus on myself,” he said. “I’ve carried the ball plenty this season. It does me no good or my teammates no good if I don’t get the ball 10 times in the second half and I start complaining. That does me no good.

“I try to focus on my teammates like the backups in my position that get to go run the ball. When my backup scored his first touchdown, I was pretty excited for that. I try not to focus so much on myself and (focus) on the team. I just try playing the game and doing it harder, and when it’s not me, focus on the team and watch their success.”

Elgin’s Quentin Harrison (13) shakes the hand of Ridgedale’s Landon Murphy before the Week 2 football game at Ridgedale this season.

Fahey Bank Award winner

Harrison has had plenty of success despite the playing time limitations. In two games in August, he ran for 304 yards and six touchdowns, averaging 7.4 yards per carry. He also made eight tackles, intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble. All of it combined for him to be named Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month for August among Marion County boys.

“It’s definitely cool that I won it, but mainly I’m doing my thing, working hard, and whatever comes along I appreciate it and then move on,” he said of the award.

Still, he likes the fact that he and teammate Kaiden Luikart are members of the same Fahey Bank fraternity now with Luikart winning one last winter for his wrestling talents.

“It’s cool it happened, but I’m not going to sit and talk about it,” he added. “It feels good. It shows appreciation. It will be cool for my name to be up there for as long as Elgin’s a thing. I’ve had some teammates get it, too, and it’s a cool thing to enjoy with my friend Kaiden Luikart. It’s cool to enjoy it with him.”

With how busy, active, energetic and successful he is, does he ever get to power down?

“I get a good solid seven hours of sleep. Sleep is a priority for me. I love sleep,” he said with a laugh.

It enables Q to keep going and going and going.

rmccurdy@gannett.com

419-610-0998

X, formerly Twitter @McMotorsport

Instagram @rob_mccurdy_star

Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month

Elgin’s Quentin Harrison (13) lays a block on a Crestline defender as fellow running back Ronnie Newman takes it during Friday’s home football victory over Crestline.

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Fahey Bank Award: Quentin Harrison brings energy to Elgin football